Addicted to novelty since 2001

The Lovely, Evolutionary Growth of Wikipedia Articles

October 30, 07

I periodically contribute to Wikipedia. One of my favourite Wikipedia phenomenon is the seemingly organic growth and distillation of articles, from tiny saplings to towering firs. Here are a few examples:

Two years ago (almost to the day), I wrote a blog post soliciting filming locations in and around Vancouver. Derek thought it would make a good Wikipedia entry, so he started one. Look at it today. It’s grown from 8 locations and 94 words to at least 100 locations and 4350 words. Length isn’t usually a good measure of a Wikipedia article’s quality, but given that this entry is mostly a hyperlinked list, it’s a useful metric.